"It was important for us to get something out of our first game." Coventry City's Darragh Leahy

8 May 2015

Matt Joyce

The Sky Blues defender believes the young Irish side were unlucky not to take three points against the Netherlands...

Coventry City defender Darragh Leahy believed that the Ireland Under-17s deserved all three points in their opening UEFA U17 Championships Finals against the Netherlands.

Leahy, who signed for the Sky Blues in January, played 90 minutes in the young Irish side's 0-0 draw against the Netherlands, also making a crucial last ditch block to keep the scores level before half-time.

The result leaves Ireland joint second in a group featuring European Under-17 Championship holders England and Italy.

But the defender, who played at centre-back in the game and impressed, believes the side should have got more for their efforts in Bulgaria.

"It was important for us to get something out of our first game," he said.

"We'll push on now against Italy and hopefully get the win there. Coming into the game, we'd have taken a draw, but with the chances we had we're disappointed not to have won it.

"We hit the crossbar when we thought it was over the line and created plenty more chances, a draw may have been a fair result but we look to the Italy game now."

Fellow centre-back partner and Liverpool Under-18s defender Conor Masterson praised Leahy for his performance, saying: "I have to say Darragh was brilliant. He did a great job and we're delighted."